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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Funky, Fun & Delicious!

Kay, being an old and dear friend, who knows me well, says, "I've got a great couple of places to take you! We'll leave the guys here, and just the two of us will go have some FUN!" So off we went! First direction, back to California! "Tecopa" to be specific. We "checked out" the options for the various "hot springs", but turned up our noses and drove on to China Ranch Date Farm. THAT was the real beginning of our adventure! You practically need a 4-wheel drive to get there, but Kay knew the way, and v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y drove through the soft rocky road to the ranch. All along the "road" are steep walls of gypsum that had been mined out long ago, leaving a pretty interesting entrance to this place, I must say! We finally reached the "entrance sign" so I knew it couldn't be much further, then turned a corner, and WOW, rows and rows of beautiful date palms! Now, it's not like I haven't seen date palms before, but I can tell you, I haven't seen any with clothes hanging in them! What a hoot! Instead of burlap bags or other "plain" material to cover the dates until picking time, they use old clothes! Guess it's easier? cheaper? a good marketing idea? Anyway, it does make a good "impression", that's for sure!

After driving around enjoying the trees, we went over to the "store", such as it was. Nothing about this place is "fancy" that's for sure. But one this is for sure, the dates are plenty, the variety is huge, and the taste is wonderful! They make date shakes (of course) and bread (all day, every day) that I couldn't resist (sorry Jenny Craig). A few other fun little "sights" to see and chuckle over and off we went, on to the next "location" of my surprise adventure!

A few miles away, we came to this little, I mean little town called Shoshone. We missed the museum being opened, but I still had a good time walking around and seeing "everything". The BEST was this art! There really wasn't any signs up about it, and the best I can gather from my research, is that it must be left from Jill "Lady Buffalo" Thacker, who was commissioned to weld the names of local mines onto a railroad rail for a footrest at the base of the bar next door. Maybe it was her, maybe it's just a "local artist" expressing them self, but I got quite a chuckle out of seeing all these just lying about in the desert!

We decided that was enough fun for one day and took the poor van in to be washed before we brought it back to the guys! A fun day had by two happy gals!

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2019- A NEW YEAR, A NEW JOURNEY

At the start of our grand adventure...

We can hardly believe it's now year seven for Jack and I, in our quest to "see the USA" in our 36' Tiffin Allegro Motorhome.

It all started in January, 2012, after retiring from the printing industry (Jack) and the San Diego Zoo (Marie). We sold our Escondido (California) home, put our remaining treasures in storage, bought the motorhome of our dreams (a 2008 little used beauty) and set out to see all that we could see!

Our only goal was to "follow the sun" as neither one of us are big fans of cold weather, especially driving in snow. Our first destination was to head slightly east towards friends. Several years ago we had a number of our friends who had abandoned the work-a-day-world in favor of a full-time RV life, two couples that had done that, now were living in Nevada, & Arizona and we wanted not only to see them, but to learn as much as we could from them!

With little more than their wonderful sage advise, we soon set off for the adventure of our life. We loved every moment of it; so much so, we are now going forth with year seven!

If you followed along with us during our first years, welcome to year seven, and thanks, as it's nice to have company (be sure to say "hi" sometimes)! If you are new to the blog, "welcome" and I hope you enjoy the trip.

You would think that after all these years, we'd "seen it all"...but no, we haven't! This is a beautiful country and we never get tired of discovering it. Every back road leads to a new and wonderful adventure! We finally have "crossed off" all the lower 48 states, but that doesn't mean there are no surprises left, no new campsites to explore, no new parks to visit and favorite spots to see once again!

We changed our "status" this year, in that we went from "being on the road full-time" to "being on the road part-time"...but the adventure is still the same!